AlphaTalk

What can you say about a program that simply repeats a letter that a small child types?  This will be a short section!

When a child types a letter or number or punctuation mark, AlphaTalk simply puts the character on the screen and says its name.  This would be very boring for an older child, of course, and children definitely outgrow this program.  But kids from four months to about a year and a half really like AlphaTalk.  It is simple enough for them to understand, and it really does teach them their alphabet and numbers.  Any kid who doesn't yet know their alphabet should be given an opportunity to use AlphaTalk.  If they don't like it, you can be sure they aren't learning from it, and it's time to go on to another program.

The characters in AlphaTalk can appear in several colors and in small, large, or very large type.  A child can resize the window(you might want to maximize it at first) or move it around.  He can use the caps lock key or the shift key the way you would expect.  The menus at the top are self-explanatory, and are meant for exploration by the child.

Children at this age may very well have difficulty with a mouse.  Eddy didn't master the mouse until he was about eighteen months old.  Of course we didn't get a mouse until about that time…..

If the child is too young to change programs with the mouse, you are probably sitting in front of the computer with kid-in-lap anyway.  Watch him, and when he starts getting bored with the program, either switch programs for him or turn off the computer.  Don't let him sit in front of a screen that he's not interested in for any length of time.  Keep the learning fresh.

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